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Introducing Virgin Hyperloop One

Oct 12 2017

By Shervin Pishevar and Josh Giegel, Co-Founders, and Rob Lloyd, CEO, Hyperloop One

We have a new ally in our mission to reinvent transportation, and it’s someone who’s changed the industry a few times already in his career. Today we’re announcing that legendary entrepreneur Richard Branson and his Virgin Group have invested in Hyperloop One. Richard is also joining Hyperloop One’s Board of Directors, bringing along a proven track record of delivering breakthrough transportation experiences.

The Virgin Group and Hyperloop One will be entering into a global strategic partnership focused on passenger and mixed-use cargo service. As part of the partnership, our company’s name will be changing to Virgin Hyperloop One over the coming months. Virgin and Hyperloop One working together presents a differentiated brand that’s instantly recognizable around the world and lends tremendous credibility as we scale. Our global strategic partnership will focus on passenger and mixed-use cargo service, in addition to the creation of a new passenger division. Virgin will not be the only operator. We will work with a variety of operators globally, as selected by customers.

A partnership with Hyperloop One feels like a natural fit. Virgin has been at the forefront of transportation innovation for more than 20 years. It has entered major markets, competed with giants and won. Virgin’s purpose-driven mission to deliver more sustainable modes of transportation aligns well with Hyperloop One’s radically efficient and clean technology.

Our summer of historical full-system tests at our DevLoop site in Nevada proved our technology works. As the only company that has built a fully operational Hyperloop, we’re seeing growing demand from governments and the private sector around the world. We now have projects underway in the U.A.E., U.S., Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, and India. The combination of our technology and Virgin’s expertise in operations, safety, and passenger experience will accelerate our commercialization phase.

Even as we build this partnership, the Hyperloop One team will remain in control of all engineering and development, product and system design, business development, and strategy. Now we’re adding the ability to tap into the strength of a company with 53 million customers, excellent management, and a track record for delighting customers in a multitude of industries, especially transportation.

We can’t think of a better person or brand to be our true partner in our continued quest to make our moonshot idea a reality.